The present invention relates to a mobile container building for military, humanitarian and/or expeditionary operations, and in particular to a mobile sanitary container building.
US 2014/0008359 A1 discloses a container building, which accommodates both an interior arrangement installed in an operationally permanent manner in the interior space and also trolleys, the trolleys being able to provide various functional working areas depending on the desired application. The trolleys can be moved into the interior space and secured there for transport of the mobile container building. At a deployment site, the trolleys are moved out of the interior space and they provide a mobile workplace outside of the container building. Operationally permanently installed arrangements, such as cupboards mounted on the lateral interior walls and a work surface attached to an interior wall, remain in the interior space of the container building. The container building is based on a standard freight container (ISO container).
Such containers are typically used in sea freight shipping on container ships for the transport of goods of all kinds. They are usually made of steel, and they are stackable. In order to use such a ISO sea freight container as a mobile container building, it is known to clad the lateral steel walls and the ceiling panel from the inside and to provide insulation material. WO 2014/056548 A1 thus discloses, by way of example, a mobile container building comprising two interconnected ISO containers, which form a common interior space. The containers each have an interior wall cladding with a supporting structure made of wood and intermediate rafter insulation. Service ducts, which permit water pipes, electrical cables, fuel lines and the like to be brought inside the insulated interior walls, and thus to be concealed “in the wall” to some extent, are integrated into the supporting structure and the insulation. Such a fitting-out of an ISO container permits an individual, functionally adapted and “habitable” design and has proved to be effective in practice. However, the interior fitting-out of such an ISO freight container can be time-consuming and expensive.
WO 2016/020018 A1 discloses a further mobile container building having an operationally permanently installed interior arrangement. The interior arrangement in this case is configured for water treatment and water supply. The interior arrangement comprises a plurality of pipes, which are secured to the interior walls of the container and serve for a dual function. They are used on the one hand as water pipes, compressed air lines or the like. On the other hand, the pipes are configured to hold functional modules, such as a pump or a filter unit. The functional modules can be suspended from the pipes by means of coupling elements, which permits a very flexible and function-oriented arrangement of the interior space of container buildings of this kind.
A further mobile container building is known from US 2008/0060790 A1. In this case, the container building is a mobile data center. Various server cabinets intended to hold computers, data storage devices and cooling fans are installed in the interior space of the container. In this case, too, the container building is realized on the basis of an ISO freight container.
In the field of container shipping, there are various kinds of freight containers that are intended for different types of cargo. In addition to non-insulated steel containers, which have typically been used in the previously described container buildings, there are special containers, such as tank containers for liquid or gaseous hazardous cargos, what is known as flat rack containers without a roof and side walls, as well as specially insulated refrigerated containers (known as reefer containers) for the transport of perishable goods, such as foodstuffs. Reefer containers are double-walled containers that are provided with thermal insulation, which have on one end face either circular openings for the supply and removal of externally generated cooling air (known as porthole or conair containers), or which have an integral refrigeration unit (known as integral refrigerated containers or integral reefers). As a rule, the walls of refrigerated containers are made of aluminum, in order to compensate for the additional weight of the refrigeration installation. An aluminum construction having a plurality of ribs oriented in the longitudinal direction, which constitute cooling ducts for the circulation of the cooling air, is typically arranged on the floor of the refrigerated container. A brief description of reefer containers can be found, for example, in a brochure published by the CMA CGM GROUP at www.cma-cgm.com.
CN 2014 94829 U discloses an interior cladding sheet having various layers, which is specifically intended for refrigerated containers.
A disadvantage of refrigerated containers, when compared with simple ISO containers made of steel, is the lower stability of the side walls, which is problematical in respect of an interior arrangement for the implementation of a mobile container building. Furthermore, refrigerated containers used as special containers are generally more expensive than simple ISO containers. As a result, it is readily acknowledged that ISO steel containers are used for the implementation of mobile container buildings.